Shape form space
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Monday, 28 March 2011
Shape form space
Check out this cool Slideshare presentation on the principles of shape form and space.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Line
Check out this SlideShare Presentation on the principles of line.
Line
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Friday, 04 March 2011
Contagious - Infecting the City
I found the group work, shown in the four pictures below, to be too literal in terms of relating to their raw material and not literal enough in terms of relating to the point of the exercise. The group of artists were provided with people's trash, their household rubbish, things they would send to the dump. Their brief, as i see it, was to communicate the value of these thrown away things, to transform them into TREASURE. The piece that they made was reminiscent to me of a natural area into which escaped rubbish has blown and in which it has entangled itself. The whole piece looked to me unintentional and confused.
I got the feeling from speaking to one of the artists, that the group was having difficulty working together. Perhaps their work in the quad was as a result of not having a clear shared vision. I feel it could have been that what we saw that day was part of a process, the group did have two more days to work on it, and pressure can be a great way to force ideas to gel.
I would have liked to see some kind of 'recycling' of the objects they were given. Much of the material they were given with which to work was literally recyclable, plastics, glass, paper, which is surely where much of the basic value of the thing lies. If i had been given the opportunity to work on this project i would have wanted to speak of the value of seeing more than one use in an object. Small sculptures, characters, playthings could be made. Or, if you wanted to be really kitsch, make an enormous glittery ring.
To be fair I did find the work quite striking. The pendulous garbage fruits hanging from the tree were entriguing and grotesque. And somehow the whole look of the piece, with the pale gravelled ground and stark blue sky made me think of a sunny day in the snow, trees and forms bulky and thick with whiteness.
The public seemed fairly indifferent. Perhaps they were in a hurry. The city station is a busy place, but also a place in which people are busy, moving fast, in commute. Or perhaps the art on show had little relevance to them, or was failing to have much impact.
The exhibition that seemed to draw the most people, with the most obvious enjoyment, was the music piece. A three-piece band played strange and joyful melodies while sitting on a marvellous great stage constructed of compressed paper and plastic waste.
I got the feeling from speaking to one of the artists, that the group was having difficulty working together. Perhaps their work in the quad was as a result of not having a clear shared vision. I feel it could have been that what we saw that day was part of a process, the group did have two more days to work on it, and pressure can be a great way to force ideas to gel.
I would have liked to see some kind of 'recycling' of the objects they were given. Much of the material they were given with which to work was literally recyclable, plastics, glass, paper, which is surely where much of the basic value of the thing lies. If i had been given the opportunity to work on this project i would have wanted to speak of the value of seeing more than one use in an object. Small sculptures, characters, playthings could be made. Or, if you wanted to be really kitsch, make an enormous glittery ring.
To be fair I did find the work quite striking. The pendulous garbage fruits hanging from the tree were entriguing and grotesque. And somehow the whole look of the piece, with the pale gravelled ground and stark blue sky made me think of a sunny day in the snow, trees and forms bulky and thick with whiteness.
The public seemed fairly indifferent. Perhaps they were in a hurry. The city station is a busy place, but also a place in which people are busy, moving fast, in commute. Or perhaps the art on show had little relevance to them, or was failing to have much impact.
The exhibition that seemed to draw the most people, with the most obvious enjoyment, was the music piece. A three-piece band played strange and joyful melodies while sitting on a marvellous great stage constructed of compressed paper and plastic waste. 
The piece that i liked the most was this life size replica of Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island made by Chris Swift out of security fencing from Robben Island. I find the use of such loaded material to create such an emotive piece very powerful. I have not yet been to Robben Island and I was gratified to finally and so unexpectadly have some sense of the dimensions of a Robben Island cell. What I liked most about the piece was the lightness and airyness given to the room by the use of the woven fencing, and the fact that the one wall or the structure had a big hole cut into it, so that this "cell" could never hold anyone captive.
I enjoyed the experience over all, as an opportunity to look and see and even think a little bit. I wish now that i could have made the time to see more of the Infection, especially the dance and performance pieces. I would have liked to see more and different ways in which the concept of Treasure (the overall theme for this year) was communicated.
Tuesday, 01 March 2011
The Gestalt Theory - It's relevance in jewellery design
The Gestalt Theory is a theory of visual literacy. It hopes to describe the way in which we read (and interpret) visual information.
Awareness of the way in which we interpret the visual language of design is not only useful in interpreting design decisions but in making them. We can begin to make more conscious choices when we design about how the piece impacts upon the intended viewers (or readers). The audience (including potential buyers) could be lulled and comforted by elements of symmetry and similarity, or may be disturbed and thrown into uncertain territory by asymmetry and dissimilarity, for example. Either way, we hope that some response has been stirred in the person of the viewer. The outcome has become manipulated by the creator of the piece if their uses of the Gestalt theory have been effective.
An awareness of how things are read helps to influence the way in which things are written. How things are seen impacts on how things are made, as well as the other way around.
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